February 2021 Update

With the current political situation in Myanmar, Burnet is doing everything to support our staff, their families and the communities we work in. Burnet has worked in Myanmar for two decades, pre- and post-democracy, and our ongoing commitment to improving the health of all people in Myanmar is unwavering.

We urgently need your support to allow us to continue to support adolescent health projects in Myanmar during this difficult time, and into the future.

Embarrassed, uncomfortable, self-conscious, humiliating.

These are all words that Ma Sabai, a 14 year old girl, living with her family in an isolated farming village in the Magway region of Myanmar, used to describe how she felt struggling to cope with menstruation.

For billions of adolescent girls and women around the world, periods are just a normal part of life. But in Myanmar, girls like Ma Sabai are faced with shame, stigma, and taboo – not to mention a lack of access to period products and sanitation facilities, particularly in school. These obstacles are having a profound impact on girls’ education, their health and their wellbeing.

Thanks to Burnet’s menstrual health program in schools in Myanmar, Ma Sabai’s life was changed.

Burnet provided training and aids to teachers to enable effective delivery of sexual reproductive health lessons in the classroom. We provided resources for the library, and private changing rooms and waste bins. We provided each girl who needed it, including Ma Sabai, with a menstrual hygiene kit, containing pads and other necessary items, with instructions.

Every girl has a right to be able to manage her own body, and your gift today, supporting Burnet’s life-changing adolescent health research and programs in Myanmar, will give young girls just like Ma Sabai the ability to take control of their health and focus on the future.